With just days to go before Hank Skinner is set to die by lethal injection, his lawyers are battling to persuade the federal and state courts to intervene to delay the execution and force prosecutors to hand over the materials for testing. The legal fight over the items has already lasted a decade, but time is now running out.

Skinner, 49, was put on death row in 1995 for the multiple murders of his live-in girlfriend Twila Busby and her two adult sons. He has consistently maintained his innocence, saying that he was virtually unconscious on the night of the murders having consumed a mixture of vodka and codeine.

I though Republicans were pro-life. If DNA evidence could prove someone’s innocence, why would they be against him living?